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Winter snow and ice storm cause of 19 deaths in US

Temperatures stayed below zero as hundreds of thousands could only wait for their electricity to be restored after a devastating winter storm that has been blamed for at least 19 deaths across the US.

DANGER AT HOME

In the latest in a string of incidents, icy weather had a hand in the deaths of four St Louis residents, city officials said on Sunday.

Two men died of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after they tried to keep warm by burning coal on their stove.

One man was found dead in his yard -- the cause of death possibly being hypothermia -- and an elderly man was found dead at the bottom of his home's stairs, the officials said.

CONTINUED RISKS

"This is not over. As long as the power is still out, there are still people at risk," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said.

Temperatures hovered around -6oC on Sunday.

City officials encouraged people to stay at temporary shelters rather than try to tough it out in residences without power.

The storm was blamed for at least 15 other deaths as it continued to spread ice and deep snow from Texas and up to Michigan and then blew through the Northeast late on Friday night and early on Saturday morning.

STRANDED TRAVELERS

Thousands of travelers were stranded by canceled flights, clogged highways and stalled trains.

By Sunday afternoon, about 350,000 customers of St Louis-based Ameren Corp were without electricity across a roughly 485km swath of land stretching from Jackson, Missouri, all the way to Pontiac, Illinois, company spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said.

The utility would not offer an estimate on when power would be restored.

At the peak of the power outages on Friday, 510,000 customers were without power, Gallagher said.

Hundreds of thousands also lost power in the other states hit by the storm.
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